The Times Magazine Today – Capa Photos
They are indeed excellent photographs and I would hope that there is some way in which the collection might be published for us all to see.
However, the captioning in The Times and in the magazine leaves something to be desired. For instance, the one on the front page of the paper is captioned as a crew waiting to take-off but to me it looks more like they have just landed from one. Notice the strain on the face of at least one of them and the dishevelled hair from wearing a flying helmet for several hours. This is a photograph of a 21 Squadron aircraft I believe, as is the picture on the front of the magazine and the one of the Blenheim on its belly covered in foam.
The two page picture inside the magazine is also captioned as a flight crew waiting to take-off but none of them are wearing flying brevets such as Observer or WOp/AG and I suspect they are ground crew looking at an aircraft in the sky. It may even be a posed picture and they’re looking at nothing.
The last picture, the B-17 and the cows, cannot be “at an English airfield as it is prepared for a daylight raid in December 1941”. for reasons I am sure you can all appreciate – December 1942 perhaps, but not 1941.
It would be so nice if responsible organs like The Times took a little bit of trouble and checked with somebody who has knowledge of such things before they publish photographs of historical subjects. These photographs are too valuable to be lumbered with inaccurate descriptions which will mislead those who might be interested but know nothing of the subject.
Sign In
